Watford DC Line and London Underground

[Helvellyn]

Could the Watford DC Line have been transferred to London Underground when the privatisation of BR happened? Given it's self-contained, operated at a relatively low frequency, plus between Queens Park and Harrow & Wealdstone it's shared with the Bakerloo Line, I could have seen some advantages (but also challenges).

• Better integration of the line by London Transport for through journeys;
• Station platform heights adjusted for Tube stock (if services could have been standardised on one train type);
• Potential to have transferred operations fully to the Bakerloo Line by extending more Queens Park terminators (and reinstating the Bakerloo to Watford Junction)
  • This could have seen Euston to Queens Park abandoned given South Hampstead passengers could have been directed to Swiss Cottage and Kilburn High Road passengers to Kilburn Park;
  • Accepting it would need converting to AC overhead it would have provided an extra pair of lines between Camden and Euston, and an extra two platforms at Euston as well;
  • Again, accepting a conversion to AC overhead, freight traffic for the North London Line could have been split off between Kilburn and Camden

One of the biggest challenge would have been whether London Underground had any stock to take over the route in 1994. 1999 might have been feasible once 1972 Mk 1 stock was available from the Northern Line to augment the Bakerloo Line fleet in greater numbers. The other challenge would have been what to do with the line between Queens Park and Euston if London Underground had taken over the DC Lines and just started running it as an extension of the Bakerloo (although it could have tied in with work around Euston for the WCRM).

I know people will say this is a solution looking for a problem, and I'm aware as built the Watford DC was part of the wider North London network with the Broad Street services. But by the early 1990s it was self-contained as Euston-Watford, co-running with the Bakerloo for a significant part. Even if London Transport had just taken on the line as is the fact it's self-contained and shares a big chunk of infrastructure means it could have been run jointly with the Bakerloo (possibly keeping it's NSE era Harlequin Line name for Tube map/branding purposes) in the way that the Circle/Hammersmith & City were with the C stock.

 

[JonathanH]

Accepting it would need converting to AC overhead it would have provided an extra pair of lines between Camden and Euston, and an extra two platforms at Euston as well;

I'm not sure the infrastructure release at Euston is as significant as you make out. The London Overground trains run off a single (short) platform at Euston and share lines B and C with AC electric services running to the slow lines. Essentially that capacity from Euston is then reused by freight traffic off the Primrose Hill and Hampstead lines further north.

1999 might have been feasible once 1972 Mk 1 stock was available from the Northern Line to augment the Bakerloo Line fleet in greater numbers.

Some of this also went to the Victoria Line, although I guess only five or six additional trains would have been needed to maintain the Queens Park to Watford Junction service.

One other point to note is that Willesden depot was still used as a locomotive depot at the time, with 313s allocated to Bletchley. Not sure what the cycles were at the time but presumably the idea could have led to the fleet being reallocated elsewhere.